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Intro This is a really quick supplement to my Indigo Xtreme review...a little data, a few words, and we'll call it done. Due to the brevity of this write-up, I highly recommend reading the full Indigo Xtreme review where I detail all my methods and give full impressions of the numerous other TIMs shown in these charts. Arctic Silver Ceramique is another old-timer from Arctic Silver. It's a white, generic looking paste that's not to be confused with actual generic paste (which usually varies from bad to horrible). Ceramique promises to perform and is used by many these days due to its non-conductive and non-capacitive properties, as well as its very low price and high quantity syringes. Due to popular demand, it was added to this supplement. Arctic Cooling MX-3 is the successor to the extremely popular MX-2. It promises to perform better and have all the same non-capacitive, non-curing, non-conducting properties of MX-2. It's really new to the scene and I was luckily able to order some from Petra's Tech Shop and squeeze in a few tests before transitioning my testbed and going on a vacation. |
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Thermal Testing Methodology/Specification Methodology My TIM tests are a derivative of my waterblock tests. I use Dallas One Wire DS18B20 temperature probes at various points through my watercooling loop and at the air intake to measure temperatures, I use the same pump and block on every test, and use good testing practice by performing 5 mounts (when possible). Where applicable, I follow manufacturer's installation procedures to the letter. For my TIM tests, I'll be plotting temperature vs. time, in the form of a 60 minute moving average (or less for the first hour of data). Despite the 1C resolution of the Intel DTS sensors, these tests can be considered statistically highly precise due to the immense amount of data acquired from polling every sensor/probe/meter every second over the course of 12 hours. A moving average is used to smooth out the noise associated with this kind of measurement and to maintain a very high precision of information. A typical TIM test, in raw .CSV outputs, will include roughly 6,500,000 data points per TIM. In the end, all that data can be processed down to one value: what temperature the TIM provides. I will be examining two specific components of TIM performance: how long it takes to cure (if within the 12 hour testing time) and what kind of temperatures an end-user can expect. Specification A single 12hr test per mount with 5 mounts was completed for each TIM. Everything was held consistent between tests and everything was logged.
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Installation Notes and Test Notes Arctic Silver Ceramique In my haste to make it to the airport, I neglected to take a picture of a sample mount, but the amount of TIM required is very little. It's a pretty thick and sticky paste, but it's not hard to work with at all. I used a dot in the center method for all three mounts and thought the results were "consistent enough." Arctic Cooling MX-3 In yet another moment of incompetence of this supplemental write-up....MX-3's data has its own flaw. And it's actually stems from a product flaw/oddity--MX-3 performs its best when very large quantities are used. It's unlike any other paste I've used before in that I got better and better results the more I applied, even if I wasn't seeing any visible difference once unmounting the block from the IHS (even IC Diamond stops performing better once you use enough to cover the IHS). From the first mount to the fifth mount, I increased bead sizes from ~6mm to ~10mm and each mount was better than the last. If Arctic Cooling had bothered to have any product instructions indicating this, this could have been avoided. If I had more time to test, it also could have been avoided. Either way, the data shows a strong correlation between increased TIM usage and improved temperatures and that's an interesting point on its own. But it doesn't show the true performance of MX-3 due to the 'bad' mounts when I was improperly using it. I have included a conservative performance projection for MX-3 when it's properly used--in the individual mount chart, that's the "expected" line and that is what all the asterisks are about on the tables and charts. |
Thermal Test Results Now finally some results! First up, the big graph with all my data presented as conveniently as possible. |
  Note: "Concluding Temp" is the average of all temperatures once the TIM stays below .1% above final temperature. In the case of Indigo Xtreme, MX-2, MX-3, Ceramique, and Shin-Etsu X23-7783D, it is indicative of performance once broken-in/cured. AS5 and ICD are still curing at the end of twelve hours and I would expect their eventual temperatures to be lower after a full curing session. |
Specific TIM Tests Now that we have looked at the plotted results, let's isolate the data into groupings of an individual TIMs and look at the specific mount data.Arctic Silver Ceramique:   Ceramique has a pretty large break-in and is very similar to AS5's; must be an Arctic Silver thing. In the first hour (especially the first few minutes) it performs horribly and then slowly eases downward into better temperatures. In my opinion, at the end of twelve hours, it is very close to finishing it's break-in period. The 'bump' at 60 minutes is due to the moving average calculation no longer including the really bad temperatures from the first few minutes of load. The reason why only three mounts are done was covered above. Arctic Cooling MX-3:   MX-3, unlike MX-2, actually stands up to the "non-curing" claim and barely has any variation over the 12 hours. The "expected" curve and asterisks and performance explanations are all covered above and is pretty important to read. |
Thoughts and Conclusion |